_The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban_ describes life as it is now for women in Afghanistan. Ebook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8174-3.

Even though the people of Afghanistan have in general suffered under the Taliban, women live especially difficult lives, enduring terrible hardships. They are denied basic human rights and kept in seclusion. This work addresses the religion, revolution, and national identity of Afghan women and discusses their political and religious place, thus elevating our understanding of their abuse, imprisonment and murder, and offering a basis for their rehabilitation. Powerful and moving interviews with Afghan women, conducted and translated by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan are presented and a brief history of the struggle of the Afghan women and an overview of the conflict between the Afghans and the Taliban are included. Appendices, tables, bibliography, index.††††††††

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ExcerptThe Taliban changed our whole life. Last year, the fighting between Massoudís forces and the Taliban in Shamali struck the first blow to our life when a rocket hit directly in the middle of the garden and burned almost all the trees. It was really hard for my husband to repair his beloved garden. He was working steadily in the garden in his leisure time and completed nearly half the garden. The recent fighting struck the most backbreaking blow, this time it was not the garden but its gardener that became the victim of the fighting. My husband was in his shop when suddenly the shelling of rockets started, he did hurry to get his shop closed but he was too late. A rocket blew up just in front of the shop and killed him on the spot. [Interview, Safia]

Appendix A: Selected Organizations That Provide Information on Afghanistan
Appendix B: Notes from the 2000 Conference for Women of Afghanistan
Appendix C: Some of the Restrictions and Decrees Imposed by Taliban
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Professional Reviews_The Mountain Times_ Online, Electric Bookshelf, A Forum for Local Literature, Book FeatureEspecially revealing are profiles of actual Afghan women, and their own tales of how the Taliban regime brought them misery and suffering. For example, a woman named Zarmina says, "The Taliban are very harsh to our people and especially to our women. They beat old men in the street for not having long beards or boys for having long hair. The Taliban made our already ruined life a misery." Many women tell firsthand of murders or other violence, and the crippling economic impact of two decades of nearly continuous war. (Dec. 11, 2001)

In the Spotlight, Ipage, Ingram BookA Powerful and Moving History of Afghan Women Under th Taliban Regime ... (Dec. 2001)

_Reference & Research Book News_Sociologist Skaine presents a brief overview of the quality of life for Afghan women under the former Taliban regime of Afghanistan, as well as women's responses to the Taliban. After presenting a brief overview of the history of Afghanistan, discussing how women have played a much more prominent role in Afghan civil and political life in the past, she details many of the abuses of the Taliban regime and discusses whether their treatment of women is somehow intrinsic to the practice of Islam. A significant part of the work includes profiles of a couple dozen Afghan women, many of whom resisted Taliban policies by opening schools, documenting abuses, and building resistance organizations. This section is helped by the fact that Skaine is able to present interviews collected by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), thereby gaining access to voices that aren't normally heard in Western sources. The rapid turning of events following the U.S. attack on the country necessarily dates a final chapter on the prospects for the future. (Feb. 2002)

Rosemarie, I thoroughly enjoyed this scholarly but very human look at life in Afghanistan under the Taliban. You do a great job of sorting out the complex political and religious struggles that brought on first the existence of, and then the dominance of the Taliban.
And you make the point that the Taliban are an extreme fundamentalist offshoot of traditional Islam. The actual edicts issued by them in the late nineties, listed in the bookís notes, seem stranger than fiction.
The profiles of individual Afghan women, written in their own words were very moving.
Larry H

I salute you for caring enough to write this, Rosemarie. It makes one's hair stand on end, to hear of some of the travesties perpetuated on Afghani women. I have tutored newly arrived Afghani refugee girls, who have never before attended schoo.

Rosemarie,
Keep up the good fight! Being a voice spoken on behalf of those having not the freedom, to cry out themselves in righteous protest!
I salute you!
Rodney Evan Bohen

Reviewed by Mary Nelson

I finished the Afghan book. It was hard to read about the lives these women have had to lead. And if it was hard to read, it was hard to lead that life. We can only hope that now that the Taliban are gone, that these poor women will be able to pick up their lives and make decent lives for themselves and their children. It is the new generation coming up that must be helped.
It was a good book to read to find out the truth about Afghanistan. I am glad I read it.
Mary Nelson